


No Talk

by ErodiumsMnemic



Category: Hotline Miami (Video Games), RWBY
Genre: Gen, Hearing Voices, Muteness, Psychopathology & Sociopathy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-01-05 12:48:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12190296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErodiumsMnemic/pseuds/ErodiumsMnemic
Summary: Ruby Rose was a bright, talkative little girl. One day, however, this changed. After catching a cold, it is revealed that she inherited a condition from her mother: mutism. Now fifteen-years-old, Ruby must find her place at Beacon Academy, despite her disability. Another complication is the woman in Ruby's dreams, who seems to be familiar, despite Ruby never seeing their face.





	1. Prologue: Trauma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should probably write the sequel to 'Death Wish', but this idea wouldn't stop bugging me. So, I wrote this instead. Not sure where I'm gonna go with this storyline, but I have some ideas. Suggestions and comments are appreciated!

Eight-year-old Ruby Rose woke abruptly, the shrill alarm going off next to her bed. She reached out and turned it off, then sat up in her bed. She stretched, cracking the joints in her back. She turned towards her older sister, who was sleeping (or trying to, at least) in the bed on the opposite side of their shared room.

She smiled and called out to Yang, to tell her that it was time to get up and face the day. No words came out of her mouth. Ruby blinked. She tried again, yelling at the top of her lungs. Her voice had disappeared, and the strain had sent her into a coughing fit.

Yang’s sisterly instincts kicked in the moment Ruby started coughing, and she was up in an instant. She rushed over to Ruby’s bed. “Ruby, are you okay?” she asked, her concern apparent. Ruby opened her mouth, but she couldn’t speak. Yang pressed her hand to Ruby’s forehead, feeling that Ruby had a fever.

“Calm down, okay?” Yang said to Ruby, as the poor girl had begun hyperventilating. “Dad!” Yang yelled. “Ruby’s sick!”

Soon after Yang called out, Taiyang rushed into the room. He placed his hand on Ruby’s forehead. “That’s a serious fever you got there, Rubes,” he commented. “How do you feel?”

Ruby opened her mouth again, though her efforts were in vain. Upon realizing that her voice wasn’t going to begin working again anytime soon, her eyes began to moisten. Soon, tears began to roll down her cheeks.

“Ruby…” Tai said, pulling Ruby into a hug, Yang soon joining in, sandwiching Ruby in between them. “I’m going to take care of you, alright?” Tai said. “We’re going to get you to the hospital, okay?”

Ruby could only nod in response.

~~~

Yang and her father sat in the waiting room of the hospital. Ruby was currently in the examination room, and the two were waiting anxiously for news of what exactly had happened to Ruby.

Moments later, the doctor walked into the room, and invited them into the hallway. She told them that Ruby was suffering from a genetic condition that manifested itself during or before adolescence. This condition was usually triggered from a case of the common cold, and caused irreparable damage to the vocal chords.

This meant that Ruby would recover, but would likely never speak again.

“And there’s nothing you can do?” Tai asked the doctor.

The doctor shook her head. “Sadly not.”

Tai sighed. “Can I take her home?”

“Of course,” the doctor responded.

Tai and his older daughter walked into Ruby’s room at the hospital. Ruby smiled when she saw them walk in.

“We’re gonna get you home, okay?” Tai said. “We can take care of you until your cold goes away.”

Ruby grabbed a nearby slip of paper and a pen and began to write. _Will I get my voice back?_ she asked. Tai’s smile disappeared.

“I’m sorry, Rubes,” he said. “The doctors say you might never speak again.”

Ruby’s lower lip began to tremble as tears formed in her eyes. Yang noticed this, and quickly hugged her little sister. “Don’t worry, Ruby!” Yang said as they broke apart. “We’ll make sure you get better. We’re gonna take you home and find a new way for you to talk!” Ruby smiled sadly at this. “And then you’re gonna go to school and become the greatest huntress ever!”

Ruby grabbed Yang in another hug. She wrote a note on another sheet of paper: _Thanks_.

Yang smiled. “Anything for my baby sister.” Ruby scowled at being called a baby.

 _I’m not a baby_ , was quickly scrawled on the pad of paper she was holding.

“Maybe not,” Yang said. “But you’ll _always_ be my baby sister!”

Ruby rolled her eyes and lightly punched Yang in the arm. Yang giggled, and wrapped Ruby in another bear hug.

Tai chuckled, glad to see that his daughters were unshakable.

~~~

Ruby had been living at home for a few weeks, and she had finally recovered from her cold. However, her voice was still gone, and she had relied on notes to communicate with her sister and father. Meanwhile, Yang had researched alternate ways of communication, and had come up with a solution: sign language.

During her first week back home from the hospital, Ruby had been ambushed by Yang, who was telling her how great sign language was. Ruby had hesitantly accepted the offer to learn the new language.

The next few weeks, before she recovered, were filled with the three of them all learning sign language together, so that Ruby didn’t need to have a pad of paper on hand when talking with Tai and Yang.

Most mornings, Ruby woke up, tired, with a sore throat and congestion. Not today, however. She woke up and felt energized. She jumped out of bed, and ran over to Yang, shaking her sister awake.

“Hmm? What is it, Ruby?” Yang mumbled groggily, her eyes opening slightly to see her sister’s response.

 _I don’t feel sick anymore!_ Ruby signed excitedly. Yang smiled sleepily.

“Good for you, Rubes!” Yang replied. She sat up and yawned. “Let’s go see if Dad’ll let you open that box now.”

The box in question was something Tai had dug out of the attic, claiming that it contained Summer Rose’s possessions. However, he wouldn’t let Ruby open it, as he was worried she would “get germs all over everything”. Yang didn’t want to open it either, because she knew Ruby would cheer up when she saw their mother’s things.

The red and yellow duo dashed down the stairs to see their father cooking breakfast. He looked at them and grinned. “Someone seems like they feel better,” he said, flipping over a pancake. Ruby nodded vigorously.

“Does this mean you want to open the box?” Tai asked with a grin. Ruby grinned back, nodding again. “Go ahead,” he said, gesturing towards the box sitting on the dining table. “I’m not gonna stop you.”

Ruby and Yang rushed to the table, and Ruby unfolded the flaps of the box. She reached in and pulled out a strange, rectangular object. The object was slightly bulkier than a scroll, but could be held in one hand. It had buttons running down the side of it.

“I remember that,” Taiyang said as he brought a plate of pancakes and eggs to the table. “Your mother had the same condition as you do, Ruby. She used that tape recorder to ‘speak’ to the rest of our team.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. _Really?_ she signed. _How did she use it?_

Tai smiled. “She fed tiny bits of her aura into it, so she could track which part of the tape she wanted to use. She could also choose which _tape_ she wanted to use.” Tai gestured to the four tape slots on the recorder.

Ruby tried to feed her aura into the recorder, and succeeded with surprising ease. “ _~*Like this-*~?_ ” Ruby asked, pausing the tape after finishing her question. Tai smiled.

“Exactly,” he said.

Ruby looked back into the box, and pulled something else out. Tai grinned widely. “Your mother would wear that under her cloak after we graduated from Beacon,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll do the same, once you grow into it.”

Ruby looked back at the item in her hands. It was a faded brown and yellow letterman jacket with a ‘B’ for ‘Beacon’ over the left breast.


	2. Chapter One: Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID IT! I FINALLY FUCKING UPDATED! Sorry about my absence these past few months. School's a nightmare.

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Rose sat at the table of the darkened room, looking down in shame. She held her tape recorder in her hand, nervously tapping its casing.

“I hope that you realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady,” said the woman who was pacing around the table Ruby was seated at.  “You put yourself and others in great danger.”

“ _~*-They started it-*~!_ ” Ruby objected, playing the corresponding buttons on her tape recorder. Glynda paused at the sound of the tape, attempting to recall where she had heard the synthesized voice before. She narrowed her eyes at the girl in the chair.

Before Glynda could respond, however, Ozpin walked into the room, holding a tray of cookies. “Ruby Rose…” he drawled. “You have… silver eyes.”

Ruby looked up at him uncomfortably. Ozpin looked down at her tape recorder. “And something I haven’t seen in a _very_ long time.”

Before Ruby could respond, he continued. “So! Where did you learn to do this?” he asked, gesturing towards a tablet Glynda was holding, displaying Ruby’s fighting skill. “I assume you have an answer on your tapes?”

Wide-eyed, Ruby wound her tape to the answer she wanted and pressed play. “ _~*-Signal-*~_ ” she answered.

“They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?” Ozpin questioned. Ruby nodded.

“ _~*-One teacher-*~*-in particular-*~_ ” Ruby replied.

“I see.” Ozpin thought for a moment, sitting down, placing the tray of cookies down on the table. Ruby hesitantly reached out and took one, biting into it. After a moment, she began to wolf down the rest.

“It’s just that… I’ve only seen one other scythe-wielder of that skill before.  A dusty old crow…” he mused.

Ruby nodded vigorously. “ _~*-Uncle-*~_ ” Ruby explained.

Ozpin took a sip of his drink, then put his mug down on the table.

“I take it you want to slay monsters?” he asked. Ruby nodded vigorously.

Ozpin took a moment to study the girl in front of him. “Do you know who I am?” he asked, leaning in.

“ _~*-Professor Ozpin-*~*-Headmaster-*~*-Beacon Academy-*~_ ” Ruby replied.

Ozpin smiled. “Hello.”

“ _~*-Greetings-*~_ ”

“How would you like to come to my school?” Ozpin asked, already knowing the answer.

“ _~*-Like you wouldn’t believe-*~_ ”

Ozpin glanced at Glynda, who rolled her eyes. “Well,” he said. “Okay.”

~~~

“I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!” Yang Xiao Long exclaimed, crushing Ruby in a hug.

Ruby rapidly slapped Yang’s back, gasping for air. Yang released Ruby, then said, “I’m so proud of you!”

_It was nothing, really!_ Ruby signed.

“What do you mean?” Yang asked. “It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees.”

_I don't want to be the "bee's knees", okay?_ Ruby signed. _I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees._

“What's with you? Aren't you excited?”

_Of course I'm excited... I just..._ Ruby paused, sighing. _I got moved ahead two years. I don't want people to think I'm special or anything._

Yang walked over and put her arm around Ruby’s shoulders. “But you _are_ special.”

The two paused as a news report of the last night’s events began to play. However, Ruby wasn’t paying attention. She was too busy thinking about what exactly had happened that night.

She hadn’t been in control.

At least, it didn’t feel like it. Especially since, midway through the fight, she had sheathed Crescent Rose and fought barehanded. It was like she was in the passenger’s seat of a car while a stranger was driving.

To be completely honest, it scared her.

“Hey,” Yang said, breaking her train of thought. “You okay?”

Ruby nodded. _Just have a little headache,_ she signed. _I’m sure I’ll feel better when we land_.

~~~

That night, Ruby was lying awake, staring at the ceiling of the ballroom. She blinked and found herself standing, fully dressed. She gasped in surprise, then looked around to ensure that she hadn’t woken anyone up. Thankfully, that was the case.

Ruby wondered what had prompted her to get dressed and ready, and why she couldn’t remember getting dressed. Almost instinctively, she began to walk towards the doors to exit the ballroom. Muscle memory she didn’t know she had brought her down the hallway and to the student garages, for the few students that owned vehicles.

She stopped at garage #03, which looked like it hadn’t been used in decades. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a keyring. Two of the keys had been found in the jacket’s pockets the day Ruby inherited said jacket. However, Ruby hadn’t found a lock that these keys fit inside of.

Until now.

She unlocked the garage, revealing a silver sports car, as well as assorted items used in the maintenance of the car. Ruby instantly recognized the model of the car, knowing it was what her mother had driven. _An Acado GT?_ she thought to herself.

She pulled out the second key and inserted it into the car’s lock, twisting it. The gull-wing door opened silently, and Ruby sat down in the driver’s seat. As she closed the door, she looked around to find that there was a cardboard box in the passenger’s seat.

She grabbed the box and examined its contents: a rubber chicken mask and a suppressed submachine gun. There was nothing interesting about the chicken mask, other than it looked old, and had what looked to be faded bloodstains on it. The submachine gun sported a gradient paint job, going from a bright blue at the rear of the receiver to a neon pink at the front of the receiver.

Ruby found a few spare loaded magazines in the box as well. After digging in the box a little more, she found an ancient Scroll. Surprisingly, it was still charged. Muscle memory guided her fingers as she typed in the passcode, 040389. Ruby’s eyebrows creased as she noticed that the Scroll had just received a message.

_Hey there!_ it read. _I’m happy to hear that you decided to come back from retirement. Speaking of which, we need you to pick up a package down at the airdocks, near the cargo ships. Just leave it at delivery point F-32, in the proper receptacle. Glad to have you back!_

Ruby was confused. Retirement? Point F-32? Ruby suddenly found herself putting the car into drive, not recalling ever turning the ignition. At that moment, Ruby was glad that her dad had taught her the basics of driving.

Ruby pulled out of the garage, and onto the road. She drove over to the airdocks, finding no-one there. _I’m supposed to pick up a package?_ she thought. _From who!?_

As she stepped out of the car, she realized that she had loaded and primed the submachine gun, and was about to put on the chicken mask. _What!?_ she thought, panicked. She blinked and found herself wearing the mask, and standing outside of the entrance.

Suddenly, it was as if a switch was flicked.

Ruby kicked in the door, watching as a White Fang goon was knocked over by the force. Quickly, she stowed away the gun in her jacket and picked up the goon’s pipe. She straddled the goon, raising the pipe above her head, poised to strike.

She brought down the pipe heavily, feeling the satisfying _crunch_ as the pipe smashed the goon’s forehead in. She lifted the pipe back up, before smashing it down again. She repeated this process until she felt a _squelch_ from the pipe entering the goon’s frontal lobe. She lifted the pipe for a final strike, then obliterated the remains of the skull.

Unfazed, she stood back up, then ran over to the nearby restroom, drawing her gun. As she opened the door, she took aim at a White Fang goon at the urinal. Before they could react, Ruby had already pulled the trigger, creating new, bloody cavities in their body.

Their body slumped to the floor as Ruby dashed up a set of stairs.

Ruby ran in, mowing down a knife-wielding grunt. she then sprayed the next room until she felt the magazine run empty. She holstered the gun in her coat, then grabbed the knife off the goon’s body.

She went into the next room, finding two corpses riddled with holes. She noticed a final room, and approached the doorway, seeing two more goons. She immediately ran in and slashed one of their throats, then stabbed the other in the eye, before turning to a man cowering behind them.

“P-please!” he pleaded. “I have a f-family!”

His pleas were silenced as Ruby drove the knife through his sternum, destroying his heart. Under the mask, Ruby had no expression. She picked up the briefcase he had been holding, recognizing it as the ‘package’ she had come to collect. She stepped over the bloody corpses as she exited the room.

Ignoring the stench of death, Ruby walked through the previous rooms, trying to avoid looking at the bullet-ridden carcasses around her. However, the fight was not over. When she went down the stairs, she found a pair of White Fang goons crouching over their dead colleagues.

She snuck up behind them before slamming the briefcase into one of their skulls, then swiping at the other’s face with it. She had to be quick, as they were already recovering. She climbed on top of the first one, quickly ending his life with a swift jab from the edge of the briefcase, completely caving in his skull.

She turned to the other goon, and smashed the briefcase into their skull. Her brain and skull fragments painted the floor like some sort of twisted artwork.

Ruby got up and walked to the car. On the drive to point F-32 (Ruby didn’t question how she knew where that was), she tried not to think about what she had just done.

She stopped the car and let it idle in the front of the alleyway. She climbed out of the car, briefcase in hand, and walked down the alleyway, passing an unconscious bum on the way. She turned the corner and went up to the dumpster, using the briefcase to lift the lid. She dropped the lid, letting the briefcase fall into the dumpster.

Ruby sighed, wondering what had caused all of this. She began to make her way out of the alley. However, the noise of the lid dropping had apparently woken up the bum. “Who's there?” he shouted. “I can hear you! I know you're there!”

Ruby steeled herself, preparing herself to attack. She ran around the corner, and punched the bum, knocking him down. She paused for a moment, examining the unconscious form of the bum on ground in front of her. She crouched down, picking up the bat the bum had been carrying. Steadily, she raised the bat over her head.

She clenched her jaw as she brought the bat down through the bum’s skull, hearing the sick crunch as the bone was shattered into pieces. She raised the bat again, before slamming it down again, splattering the bat and herself with blood. She repeatedly bashed the bum’s head in with the bat, the continuous sound of the contact between the two slowly becoming white noise.

Ruby stood, satisfied that she was done. She dropped the bloodied bat on the ground beside her. Her eyes widened beneath the mask as realization dawned on her.

She had killed an innocent person.

This man hadn’t done anything wrong. He was just trying to live with the hand that life had dealt him. He could’ve made his way out of this hellhole, rising to success. But now, he couldn’t. Ruby had taken that chance away from him.

Standing in that alleyway, the blood from the bum splattered across the pavement, Ruby felt like she couldn’t breathe. She started to walk towards the car, before collapsing to her knees. She ripped the mask off of her head, letting herself breathe more easily. She took deep, shuddering breaths as she looked down at herself, seeing all the blood that had gotten on her jacket.

She hunched over, releasing the contents of her stomach onto the ground as her thoughts returned to the dead person behind her. Shakily, she stood up and picked the mask and walked to the car.

~~~

Luckily, the bloodstains blended in nicely with the pre-existing stains on the jacket, removing the need to worry about people noticing. Ruby locked the car, leaving the gun and the mask in the box in the passenger’s seat. She closed the garage door and locked it, and began making her way back to the ballroom.

As she walked, she began to mull over the night’s events in her mind. She had driven to a place without any explanation other than she was supposed to pick up a package, gone in, and killed people.

But they were White Fang goons, so it was okay. _Right?_ Ruby thought. _The White Fang is evil, so I’m being a good person, right?_ But the fact remained that she had taken lives that night. Her thoughts turned back to the bum.

_He didn’t even do anything…_ she thought. _It was in self-defense! He would’ve attacked me! I could hear it! He was even holding a bat!_

But something was nagging at the back of Ruby’s mind. There had been a _rush_ she had felt, taking those people’s lives. The satisfaction of seeing them lying on the ground, bloodied. Their chests failing to rise and fall, no signs of life in their body. Even worse, feeling the life drain from their bodies as she caved in their skull. As Ruby cleaned herself up and went to bed, one question remained in her mind.

_Do I like hurting other people?_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave a comment, because they help me improve!


End file.
